Dottie Dodgion was fascinated by rhythm, which she found everywhere — first as a dancer, and even as a typist. She began singing at a young age, and eventually took to the drum set. She defied the odds and earned a seat as a woman in the exclusive men’s club of jazz.
Her dues-paying path as a musician took her from early work with bassist Charles Mingus in Oakland, California, in the late 1940s to being hired by Benny Goodman at Basin Street East on her first day in New York in 1961. She broke new ground as a woman who played a “man’s instrument” in first-string, all-male New York City jazz bands.
Dodgion's memoir talks frankly about her music, her beloved mentor bassist Eugene Wright, her husbands and the musicians who populated the bi-coastal jazz world of the 1960s and 1970s.
She's equally open about the challenges she faced, including polio, two life-threatening abortions, a burst appendix, kidnapping, rape, poverty and giving up custody of her daughter.
"The Lady Swings: Memoirs of a Jazz Drummer" was written in Dodgion's voice with the assistance of author Wayne Enstice. The publisher, University of Illinois Press, includes links to access unreleased and hard-to-find recordings of Dottie Dodgion on its website.
Vivid and entertaining, "The Lady Swings" tells Dottie Dodgion's story with the same verve and straight-ahead honesty that powered her playing.
